Originally released in October in aid of the homelessness and bad housing charity Shelter, Music For a Good Home 2 features many exclusive tracks from not only internationally renowned artists such as Four Tet and Wire but also the cream of Oxford’s musical crop. With Christmas fast approaching, and with it being the season of charity and goodwill to your fellow man, there is no time like the present to donate five pounds (every penny of which goes straight to Shelter) in return for the 40 excellent tracks contained herein.

Before getting to Oxford’s musical contributions, a few words on the out-of-towners. The compilation kicks off with Four Tet‘s appropriately-titled ‘Audioscope’, a song full of Kieran Hebden’s trademark sputtering rhythms, warm, organic synthesisers and a sly sense of melody delivered here by twinkling keys; it’s a gentle start to the collection but Four Tet’s inclusion is a real coup for the curators and sets the tone in terms of quality and the diversity of artists involved. Case in point: Wire, whose contribution (a live version of ‘Moreover’ from their 2011 album Red Barked Tree) is also fantastic – relentlessly fuzzy and fiercely energetic, it’s the sound of a legendary band who’ve lost none of their post-punk power in the course of their 36-year career. Elsewhere, other exceptional contributions include Boxcutter with his subverted take on dubstep, Fujiya & Miyagi‘s funky Krautrock, Karma To Burn‘s raucous instrumental stoner-rock, and Caretaker‘s insanely intricate post-hardcore racket. Truth be told, there are so many gems to explore over the course of these 40 tracks that one could easily go on at much greater length, but you’re really better off exploring the compilation, which will likely throw you more than a handful of (pleasant) surprises, spanning a diverse breadth of genres. (One of the unexpected treats for me was Magnétophone, a band who I’ve told myself to investigate further).

What’s most pleasing about Music For a Good Home 2 for this Oxford writer is that many of the best contributions here are from Oxford artists. Listing Ships are first, and bring their shimmering post-Krautrock jam ‘American Steam Company’ to the party – they remain one of the true highlights once the compilation is all over. Message To Bears, perhaps one of the greatest and most exquisitely beautiful artists to come out of Oxford in years, represents here twice – once with his own heartbreaking ‘Opus 1′ and again with a remix of the equally fantastic Flights Of Helios‘ ‘Dynah And Donalogue’. As far as possible at the other end of the spectrum is The Cellar Family, who never fail to out-freak themselves with their psychotic-punk soundtracks to no-doubt deviant acts; their contribution, ‘Someone New’, sounds like an even more lysergic take on ‘Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite’ – a real bad day at the circus. Elsewhere, The Rock Of Travolta also shine with their classical yet electronic post-rock hybrid on ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’, as do the now-defunct ute with their delicate but characteristically dark ‘Dissolve.’ Again, there are many more worthy local contributions that are only ommitted here to spare you all a tedious track-by-track breakdown.

You may be reading about this compilation with the winter months drawing in and the frost already descending; there has really never been a better time to engage with this extremely worthwhile cause. Five pounds gets you forty excellent tracks, and will directly help someone find Shelter this winter. That’s real value for money.

Buy Music For A Good Home 2 for £5 at the Audioscope BandCamp page.